Lee's Famous Recipe fried chicken in Waterbury, CT. a few years ago. (I suspect it must be closed by now).I'd been there once before in my travels and it was pretty good. I should have turned around when I saw that the parking lot was full of cracks with huge weeds growing out all around. When I went in, half the ceiling lights were off, (another warning signal). The chicken was leftover and reheated with a ton of salt on it.

It seems like most KFCs have the same problems lately. Three different stores within a short drive in this area. Always leftover and over salted. And there's no way there are 11 herbs and spices in this. It used to be one of my favorites, but no more.

When I saw this thread, the first thing that came to mind was Joe's Crab Shack. I tried to find out all their locations, but goodness, their website's awful. So strike 2 (or 3 or whatever). As they seem to be in quite a few places, maybe they're doing something right, somewhere. But I was singularly unimpressed on two visits. (My apologies to anyone who loves it.)

One problem would have to be the song that the waiters have to dance to when it plays. Now, I don't want to be a spoilsport. I know they're supposed to be fun and loud and crazy, so I get that loud music will play. But it blows my mind that the waitstaff are kept from actually serving customers for the duration of this song. This happened on one of my two visits, and at that moment, our waitress was starting to take our order. She told us she was going to go ahead and keep taking our order, even though she "wasn't supposed to." I mean, she was basically sneaking around to do her job. It blew my mind.

But the real catch-all for me--the thing that made me swear to never go near a JCC again--was, of all things, the crab legs. At Joe's Crab Shack. They were stringy. I mean, you know, there should be a solid hunk of meat that slides out. These were fibrous and tough and had to be picked out in bits. It was atrocious. I don't know if they were bad legs or if they'd been overcooked or what. But when a crab restaurant can't do good crab, they don't need my business. Ever.

Anyway, I can't list anything else right now because I'm pretty tolerant of subpar food, but that blew my mind.

I vowed off Applebee's a long time ago, but i'll be darned if my mother-in-law didnt take my two kids there and they ended up enjoying the small burgers. Well next time we went to the movies you can guess where the kids wanted to eat. I ordered a steak burger and I remembered why I vowed this place off. I couldnt eat the burger it was so hard. They forgot about my wifes food for a good 20 minutes and the waitress spilled tea on my son.

I vowed off Applebee's a long time ago, but i'll be darned if my mother-in-law didnt take my two kids there and they ended up enjoying the small burgers. Well next time we went to the movies you can guess where the kids wanted to eat. I ordered a steak burger and I remembered why I vowed this place off. I couldnt eat the burger it was so hard. They forgot about my wifes food for a good 20 minutes and the waitress spilled tea on my son.

Are you sure you were in an Applebee's and not a "Saturday Night Live' skit?

I'd pulled an all-nighter at the office once and took a break for breakfast around 5:30 AM at one of those Huddle/Toddle/Waffle House places. It was just scrambled eggs, bacon and raisin toast, but it looked like some space aliens' second-hand interpretation of earth breakfast - the eggs were light blue with the consistency of caulk, the uniform slats of bacon had no identifiable flavor...they couldn't mess up the toast much. Given the place, the expectation bar wasn't set high, but that was just weird.

Lol, I'm glad Applebees isn't just on my short list. I have had a number of ok meals there (my mom is on weight watchers and they have ww meals on their menu, so we go there a few times a year), but my #1 worst meal was there. I've gotten food poisoning from some restaurants, but they tasted good at the time, so this tops it.

My mother and I ordered appetizers. She ordered nachos, I ordered their version of loaded cheese fries.

An hour after ordering we finally received our food. Cold. The nachos were ok, but the cheese 'slabs' were inedible. We did not see our waitress again for 40 minutes. Let me add I had to work that day, so spending almost 2 hrs in a restaurant at lunch was very unacceptable.

We finally flagged down another waitress, told her we needed our check, and left. I made a complaint online, and the manager called me. We told him the situation and his response was 'oh, that was Ruby, really sorry, but she gets very distracted when Marines are in the restaurant....we'll send you a gift card.'

We took the gift card and went to a different applebees, we have not been back to that one. Are you kidding me? She's distracted, he knows, and she's still working there? My food was unedible, I was late for work, and you make excuses? What a crappy place, lol.

I can handle Applebees for adult beverages.They apparently train their barpersons well,and give fair shots.But as far as solid food goes,they are an absolute failure.I guess I have given them 4 or five visits,and received mushy burgers,slimy wings,and a 16 dollar steak that tasted like sawdust.Almost exactly the same thing as Chili's.I will probably patronize their bar again but wont waste any more $$ on their food.

Tony Roma's BBQ in Victorville, CA. We used to go at least once a month when we lived in the area. (1990's). Last time we were there we were served bad (spoiled) pork ribs. When I turned them back they brought me another order...also spoiled. Manager refused to acknowledge the bad meat, saying "they all smell like that". He also refused to comp the meal that I did not eat. We have not stepped into a Tony Roma's anywhere in the country since.

I loved the Tony roma's in Orlando and San Juan and would visit them on every trip. But the last two I visited in Georgetown, Grand Cayman and Scottsdale were so excreable just the thought of Tony Roma's ruins an appetite. With no surprise I note by their website that both the latter locations have closed.

However, Tony Roma's seems to be doing very well in the Middle East. How a place "famous" for baby back pork ribs does that is beyond me!

There was a Chinese place in downtown Cincinnati that I stopped in once in a while because I worked nights a block away and it was one of the only things that was open late.

About six or seven years ago I took a bite of my egg roll and bit into a piece of glass. It was a jagged piece in sort of a square shape with about half inch sides. Thank God I bit into the middle of it on the flat part or I would've really screwed my mouth up.

Ranking second would be a hot dog in Ottawa that I could only take one bite before throwing away. Almost every meal I've ever had in Canada has been great, but that country does not make good hot dogs.

The last two I can remember... one was at Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse. I ordered the "Tres Hombres", a sampler of pork, brisket, and ribs. The pulled pork was cold and mushy, scooped onto the plate with an ice cream scoop (still in that shape, it looked more like ham salad than pulled pork), it was obviously at least a day old. The brisket was dry and crumbly with no flavor, and the ribs were super fatty, not much actual meat, what was on it was tough and overcooked, and was obviously more than a day old also. I don't even remember what sides I had. I "sampled" everything, complained and got the rude waitress "gag" in return, and since that was the third time in a row that I'd gone that the food was nigh inedible, I never went back.

The other one was a pizza place down the street from me... the food used to be great, and it went downhill in about one week. I'd ordered a sandwich one week and loved it, ordered the same thing a week later, totally different ingredients. Instead of real roast beef, it was disgusting chopped and formed extremely cheap beef product, and the chicken philly my friend got consisted of the same type of cheap chicken, in square chunks. I remember it actually had air bubbles in it that formed during processing. I didn't bother to complain, and it wouldn't have made a difference, they were closed a couple weeks later.

Thanks!﻿ ﻿It's always great to have a pun I made five years ago appreciated! ﻿ ﻿(For context, it was in response to chewingthefat's colorful description of an excreable diding experience he did notenjoy at General Pickett's Buffet in Gettysburg, PA). ﻿

The worst? I have a few. When I lived in St. Peters, MO there was a Chinese buffet called Village China Wok. It was terrible. One time I took my sister out to lunch. We saw a roach crawl under a table. When I worked for evil uncle Sam Walton I would go to Applebees sometimes to lunch if I didn't have to work until 3:30 or 5:30 in the afternoon. The alcohol is nice, but the food not so much. There was also Chevy's Fresh Mex. Chevy's was brutal. The chimi wasn't that great (El Maguey on the other hand is somewhat better.) Not even Hacienda can escape the list. The food wasn't bad. I ordered a Negro Modelo and they put a lime in it, when I asked them not to. Limes and Vienna lagers don't go together. Finally, when I moved to back Massachusetts. I was visiting my aunt in Waltham when I went to this small pub (I forget the name of it.) The burger was on par with a McDonalds burger.

Here in Falmouth we have this place called Dynasty Buffet. The food was cold and the price outrageous at $15.95 per person. The last one is Seafood Sams. I ordered the whole clam and oyster plate. Got tons of clams, but something like three or four oysters.

Since they recently announced the closing of 8 Friendly's in CNY, I recalled a couple run-ins with them. Twice in my life I have had food poisoning and both time involved a Friendly's, oddly both in Fayetteville, NY.

The first was when I was interviewing for a job with an architect. I got there early so I could find the office and get a bite for lunch. I chose Friendly's in the Village, had a chicken salad sandwich. The interview went well and I got the job, but towards the end I wished the guy would stop talking because I seriously had to move...I had a 35 minute drive to get home, luckily the troopers weren't out.

The next time was at the now defunct Fayetteville Mall...we had our infant daughter with us and Friendly's seemed to be the correct choice. This time I bit square into a raw "grilled" chicken sandwich..yum, nothing better..